


Humanity's Last Stand

by SpoiledJ



Category: (여자)아이들 | (G)I-DLE, ITZY (Band), IZONE (Band), LOONA (Korea Band), NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Alien AU, Character Death, F/M, M/M, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:33:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25420186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpoiledJ/pseuds/SpoiledJ
Summary: Taeyeong once lived peacefully in his hometown where nothing ever happened, and everyone lived in prosperity. But this peace didn’t last for long as his paradise is then ripped away from him in an instant. After an encounter with a mysterious woman Taeyong comes to find out that he has been living in a simulation all along. After being helped escape his virtual reality he finds out the planet has been attacked by aliens and over half of the population has been abducted and placed into similar virtual prisons. With no recollection of who he was in his passed life due to a memory wipe he is tasked with leading a team of some of the most elite agents on the planet to save the human race and put an end to this war. As he is one of the only three humans in the world that hold the key to killing Zinyak. An extraterrestrial warlord and leader of the alien race known as the Zin, whose sole purpose is to capture and imprison the strongest and brightest specimens across the universe before eliminating the race.Will Taeyeong save humanity or allow its extinction?
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Jungwoo, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Cho Miyeon
Kudos: 3





	1. Waking Up

**Author's Note:**

> The characters tagged as of right now are essentially the main cast. Characters from groups like WayV, NCT(Dream), Stray Kids, Loona, IZONE, (G)I-DLE, Everglow, TXT, Ateez will be added as the story progresses. Some will become part of the "secondary main cast" while members from other groups will be added as extras.
> 
> Disclaimer: This for entertainment purposes only. The plot for this story was inspired by a video game. (If any of you recognize what game it is you're legendaric).
> 
> Also this is my first fic ever so cut me some slack if theirs any grammar or miss spelling errors. Lol.
> 
> ALSO! Follow me cause i got at least 4-6 fics in the work that will be posted as soon as possible.

Today started like any regular day for Taeyeong. The sun was bright, the air felt fresh, he felt happy. He gets up and goes about his usual daily routine; he brushes his teeth, showers, and heads downstairs to eat breakfast. As he walks into the kitchen, he is met with his lovely mother cleaning up some dishes in the sink. “Good morning sweetheart! Sit down I made your favorite breakfast!” “Good morning mom!” he says as he heads over to the table that has pancakes, eggs and bacon already set up for him to eat. “Your dad sent me to tell you he hopes you have a wonderful day at your new job! We are both immensely proud of you!” she tells him as she continues to clean the dishes behind him. After Taeyeong had finished eating his food he got up and started to bring his dirty dishes to the sink to help his mother clean them, but she gently pushes him away. “NO! Today’s your first day at work! I will make sure all of this is clean just make sure you get to work early. It won’t look good if the rookie isn’t on time wont it?” she says as she places her hands on her hip as she knows she’s correct. Taeyeong sighs and backs away from the sink in defeat, he has never been able to tell his mom no. “Now hurry up and go get the keys so you can drive yourself to work! You are a big boy now who no longer needs his mother to do things for him”. This made Taeyeong smile, he heads over to the little table near the front door and grabs the keys to his new car. This is the first time his parents are letting him use his car without their supervision. After picking the keys up he kisses his mom and heads for the driveway. He turns on the engine and smiles to himself in satisfaction. “Oh what a handsome young man you have become! Have a great day you can tell me all about it when you get home!” his mother says from the porch of the house wearing her usual big smile that shows off her pearly white teeth. She turns to walk into the house but quickly turns back around to scream one last thing to Taeyeong “OH! Sweetheart remember you have to wake up!” and then walks into her house. 

Taeyeong brushes off what his mother just told him and leaves the driveway and heads off towards his new job. He scored his first job at a diner near the middle of town. This place had just recently opened, that’s what allowed Taeyeong to get hired on the spot during his interview. As he drives around the streets of his town, he admires how perfect it is. The citizens are all incredibly happy and truly kind to one another. It really does feel like the perfect place for anyone to live. He continues down the road and comes to a stop at a red light. A pedestrian crossing the road stops right in front of his car and turns to stare at him. This old man probably no older than his mom smiles brightly at him without blinking or moving an inch for a few seconds and then turns and continues to walk down the street. Taeyeong ignores the weird interaction and continues on his way. Up ahead he sees a group of teenagers holding up signs on the sidewalk. They were standing in front of a car wash that opened a couple of months ago. One of these signs catches his attention. Unlike the other signs being held up that have phrases promoting the car wash and trying to convince drivers to wash their car there, this one says something different. You must wake up! He reads. This makes him think back to what his mom had told him before leaving the house. He notices that the girl holding the sign is holding it with one hand and the other is pointing directly at Taeyeongs car. This weird gesture sends goosebumps through Taeyeong, as well as causing the hairs on his arms to stand. Taeyeong looks away from the girl and comes across a crosswalk, he continues as he has a green light but steps on his breaks immediately as a man who was jogging stops right in front of his car. Taeyeong startled but relieved that nothing had happened slides his window down to speak to the man. 

“Excuse me sir the light was green you should be more careful next time.” The man simply stares at Taeyeong for a few seconds and then tells him with a worried tone in his voice “None of this is real” and then turns to continue jogging down the street. 

This sets a weird feeling down his spine, like earlier but worse. He continues to drive down the road and finally arrives at the diner and parks his car in the back of the building. He gets out, locks his car and heads towards the back door to enter the building as instructed by the manager the day he took his interview. Upon arriving at the back door, he sees a homeless man sitting down with his back against a dumpster staring forward. The homeless man seems to not be acknowledging his surroundings and Taeyeong just decides to simply past by him. As he approaches the homeless man, he feels something grab his right leg. As he looks down, he sees that the homeless man has grabbed his right leg with a tight grip. Before Taeyeong can even speak, the man spoke first with a low growl in his voice probably caused by years of smoking. “You need to wake up. You need to wake up! YOU NEED TO WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!” the man chants at him every time getting louder and louder. Taeyeong frightened by the man yanks his leg out of his grasp and runs into the diner and closes the door behind him. His heart racing, he leans against the door to try and catch his breath and then walks down the hallway towards the front counter to look for the manager.

At the front desk he is met with a woman at the cash register wearing the diner’s employee uniform. “Hello. I’m Taeyeong I start working today. What will you have me doing today” Taeyeong says as he stretches his hand out to shake the young woman’s hand. “Hi rookie! Well we will have you working on the cash register and then rotate you with the other employees so you can get a little taste of what all of us do around here “.

Taeyeong doesn’t respond the lovely woman in front of him. He is frightened by what is happening in front of him. The woman seems to be phasing in and out, becoming temporarily see through and almost invisible. He looks around to see if anyone else had witnessed this and sees that not only was his new coworker doing this but so was everyone else eating at the diner. This weird phasing didn’t limit itself to just the people but the walls, furniture, appliances and the food was doing this as well. Taeyeong is confused now and starts to back away from the lady before heading off to run out the back door he came through. As he leaves the front counter and goes to cross the corner he bumps into an unknown person and falls on the floor. It’s another woman, he swears he has never seen her before but oddly feels an unexplainable familiarity to her. She stretches her hand out to Taeyeong and tells him “Get up and come with me… Hurry!” and Taeyeong for some odd reason feels like he can trust her. So, he follows her into a room in the back of the diner. She walks in first and waits for Taeyeong to walk through before closing and locking the door behind them. 

“Taeyeong you need to listen to me. There’s no time to explain but you need to break free. This place, this town, the people… None of this is real it’s all a simulation!” she tells him with a worried facial expression but with a confident and almost demanding tone of voice. After Taeyeong hadn’t responded to the woman she decides to continue “You might not remember me right now, but it’ll come back to you eventually. My name is Cho Miyeon I work for the NIS and GADO and I have been sent to retrieve you and other survivors. I need you to follow me out of this simulation.” 

Taeyeong was about to respond but stops as he notices the same thing happening to this girl as it happened to the people upfront. Miyeon was phasing in and out as well, almost becoming invisible at times. “FUCK! It’s happening a lot quicker than I thought. Come on!” she says to herself and then goes to grab his hand so he can follow her. She leads him through the diner and out the front door. As they pass through the diner, he notices that everyone and everything is frozen in place and slowly disintegrating into nothing. They reach the outside and she pushes him into the passenger seat of some car that was unoccupied in the middle of the street. She gets into the driver’s seat and begins driving as fast as she can down the road.

As she drives down the street Taeyeong looks out the window to fully take in what is happening around him. Some citizens that are frozen in place are slowly turning into dust. Along with some peoples houses, dogs, trees, cars and probably everything else that is in his presence. The people that are not fading away are either running scared down the streets screaming at the top of their lungs or driving their cars frantically. 

“What’s going on? What is happening!” he asks her as he notices that the road behind him is also turning into dust. 

“I told you. This is a simulation. My team has implanted a virus to shut it down, but we need you to escape it first” she tells him as she continues to phase in and out. “The simulation is pushing me out so I might not be with you for long. We have built a gateway that’ll allow your mind to get out of the simulation and back into your body. Its located in the basement of a-“ she says but is never able to finish as she completely disappears and doesn’t come back. As theirs no driver now the car continues down the road eventually stopping once it crashes into another vehicle. Taeyeong hadn’t suffered any major injuries and slowly gets out of the car.

“Taeyeong! The gateway is located in the basement of a toy store near the big park in the middle of town. Head toward it”. Taeyeong gets up from the ground and frantically looks around for the source of the voice but finds no one around him directly speaking to him. He knows this isn’t Miyeon as this voice was male. “I’m not physically there. But just trust me.” The mysterious voice speaks to him again. 

“Who are you?” Taeyeong asks while still searching his surroundings for the mysterious voice. “My name is Kim Doyoung and I’m trying to help you escape. Now please find the store and head into the basement you don’t have much time.” Taeyeong snaps back into focus and begins to run towards the big park located in the middle of town. He knows exactly where it is due to the many visits he has had with his mother and father where they would play soccer together.

He finally arrives at the place and sees that his lovely town is almost gone. Many of the buildings have all completely or partially turned into nothing. He looks for the store he was instructed to find and begins to head toward it. As he crosses the street to enter the building, he sees his mom in the middle of the street calling for him. He stops and is about to head toward her but the voice in his head tells him “Taeyeong she isn’t real. Please head toward the gateway she’s only a memory implanted into the simulation”. Taeyeong continues to look at his mother and her usual happy face is now replaced by a sad one. “Taeyeong you aren’t going to leave your mommy, are you?” she asks him with an almost broken, sad, and distraught voice. Taeyeong is going to head for her but stops as a huge truck crashing into a nearby building distracts him. As he looks towards the crash, he sees several people heading into a toy store and it reminds him of what he has to do. He looks at his mother one last time and she eventually turns into dust as well. The scene in front of him shatters his heart into a million pieces but decides to push his feeling aside and head toward the store. 

He inters and heads towards the back to find a door that will lead him to the basement. As he heads down, he comes across several other men and woman around his age and older. He can’t specifically tell how many people are there, but he believes it could be over 50 people. They are all frantically searching the walls and floors looking for something. “What the hell! Where’s the door?” one man says as he knocks some boxes down that were stacked on top of one another so he can look at the wall behind them. “I don’t know! The woman said it would be here” another person says as they also continue to look around. All of them suddenly stop what they’re doing and look up at the ceiling. The ceiling above them is disintegrating like everything else in the town. “JESUS WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!” someone amongst the crowd screams in fear.

As everyone is about to lose hope the male voice speaks again, this time not only to Taeyeong, but to everyone in the basement simultaneously. “The gateway is about to be opened. Once all of you are free from the simulation, I can sever your connection to the Zin matrix. This will allow me to retrieve your bodies here in the real world without any of you suffering permanent brain damage.” “That’s nice but hurry up we don’t have much time!” a man with long black hair says. “Once all of you wake up we will have someone lead you to a landing platform where my team will pick you up” as Doyoung finishes his sentence a bright light in the shape of a door opens in the far wall of the basement. All the people crowding the room run towards it, pushing one another to try and leave first. As Taeyeong’s turn comes up the voice privately speaks to him again.  
“Taeyeong your survival is extremely important, and you are our top priority. Please stay safe we will retrieve you as quickly as possible”. Taeyeong doesn’t respond but nods in understanding. He finally arrives at the door and walks towards the blinding bright light.

Upon waking up Taeyeong has no sense of what’s going on. He feels extremely dizzy and temporarily blind as he tries to get his vision to focus. He feels a pain from his stomach as he vomits some unknown pinkish liquid. Once he stabilizes himself a little, he looks around to try and figure out where he’s at. As he looks around, he can see several of the people he saw in the simulation recovering from the same effects he was currently experiencing. Everyone around him including himself are covered in thin layers of some type of sticky goo. The goo is plastered all over their hair, skin, on their exposed hands and feet as well as the futuristic looking suit that everyone is wearing. As he continues to observe the room, he can see some pods across the walls. As he focuses his vision on these pods, he notices that they are all currently being occupied by humans. Some are opening and dropping humans as they wake up while others remain close concealing unconscious humans. 

After the pods had stopped opening Taeyeong along with the other survivor begin to head towards the only door in the room. As they approach the giant metallic dark colored doors they open automatically on their own. On the other side of this door theirs a long hallway with nothing to occupy it and only being lit up from the several lights on the ceiling. At the far end they can see some type of gigantic window. Everyone heads down the hallway huddled up together, frightened as they walk towards the unknown.

“I thought they said someone was supposed to lead us to a landing platform” a woman amongst the crowd speaks. As they arrive toward the end of the hallway and reach the window. The man with the long black hair steps up to it to see what is on the other side. The man gasps in shock and this makes everyone else curious, so they all decide to see the source of this man’s disbelief. As Taeyeong approaches to catch a glimpse of what the man had seen, he himself gasps in shock. As he looks out the window, he can clearly tell that they are all currently in space. In the distance he can see several small spaceships entering and exiting the giant spaceship the humans are currently inside of. “Have we been abducted by aliens?” a man amongst the crowd asks with a quiver in his voice. “When the woman said that we were in a simulation I thought she meant like we were kidnapped by the government not abducted by aliens” someone else says with fear in their voice.

They all take a left and head down some other hallway, leaving the giant window behind them. As they come across another set of doors, it opens automatically and on the other side they see several aliens as well as humans lying in their own pools of blood on the ground. “Well looks like we found those who were supposed to retrieve us” the man with the long hair says as he heads towards one of the bodies and picks up one of the dropped weapons. A woman in the crowd asks him if he knows how to use it. The man simply responds that they’re on a spaceship and that they need some type of protection. Others agree with him and head to pick up the rest of the weapons on the floor. They continue their way around the spaceship, unaware of where to go, hoping that they will find a way out. 

Out of nowhere a loud voice spreads throughout the spaceship speaking in an unknown language as a bright red light and an alarm sets off. No one in the group can understand what is being said but anyone can tell that the aliens have found out that the humans have escaped, and they’re all being hunted. The humans now even more frightened, all head down the hallway running. As they pass by another set of doors, they find themselves in what seems to be like a hanger. They can see that theirs several of the small spaceships scattered around the room along with some boxes possibly carrying alien technology. “These spaceships got in here somehow; the landing platform might not be far off” says the man with the long black hair. “LOOK! Could that be it?” a young woman amongst the crowd says as she points to a platform located in the far end of the room. The platform is being held up by a single bridge that leads to where the spaceships are currently located. Taeyeong along with everyone else head toward the platform and on their way there a red beam coming from behind them pears through the body of one of the survivors, killing them instantly. Everyone turns around to figure out where the red beam had come from and they see several aliens, holding their weapons straight at the group of humans. Taeyeong screams for everyone to run and everyone follows. Those that were able to pick up the weapons try their best to defend the group by firing back at the alien. The rest begin to cross the bridge toward the platform.

As they arrive at the edge of the platform, they realize they have nowhere else to go. They are now cornered without an exit and are unable to turn back as the aliens were now using the same bridge to get to them. In those moments of uncertainty everyone begins to panic and try to use some boxes as shield from the beams being fired at them. Taeyeong takes cover behind one of the boxes and the man with long hair that grabbed the first gone takes refuge right next to him, but only temporarily as he gets shot and killed. Taeyeong looks at the man and for a brief second a couple of memories he didn’t know he had flashed before his eyes. He remembers joining the military, training in physical combat, the exams he had to take, he remembers himself practicing at a shooting range and nailing his shots perfectly. 

He snaps back into reality and picks up the dropped weapon from the man, almost like instinct told him to do so, and aims it towards the aliens and begins to shoot. Every shot he had made landed perfectly at all his targets. He couldn’t explain his perfect precision but decided to let his body think for him and continue firing. After a few rounds he runs out of bullets along with the others that had weapons. This left the humans vulnerable and the aliens with an open window to advance towards them. The group of remaining humans begin to panic, cry, and scream in fear as the aliens begin to cross the bridge. But right before the aliens reach them, their savior had arrived. 

A spaceship heads towards their platform and turns itself around opening a back entrance. As these doors open a group of men and woman begin to shoot at the aliens while others help the humans on board. Taeyeong runs towards the ship and successfully makes it. The doors behind them are then closed and the survivors spread out through the small space they’re all currently occupying. “We need all of you to move upstairs NOW!”. Taeyeong looks towards the source of the voice and sees a man a little shorter than him who seems to be around his age. He was wearing some futuristic military suit and is holding some weapon he has never seen before. As everyone head upstairs, they’re moved to a space in this spaceship that has several tables and chairs spread around, almost making the room look like a community dining area. 

“We need everyone to hold on to something! This ride is going to get bumpy! Miyeon we are clear for departure!” the short man from before says. Taeyeong heads towards a metal bar located near a window of one of the far walls of the spaceship and holds on with all his strength. He feels a sudden change of movement speed and loses his balance temporarily but remains stable. As he holds on, he looks out the window and sees that theirs several alien spaceships flying after them. As some of them begin to get really close he can see green beams being fired at them from his spaceship. The ship heads through several openings, dodging the beams from the alien spaceships chasing after them trying to take everyone to safety.

\-----

The spaceship had finally escaped the mother ship and is now heading into deep space. For the first time in a while everyone that had escaped gets to relax for a moment. In the distance he sees a group of men and woman wearing different futuristic looking suits from those that had helped them all get on the ship earlier heading towards the survivors that were currently sitting down. As they get closer, he can tell that the woman in front of the group is the girl that he met at the diner, Miyeon, but everyone else seemed unfamiliar to him. 

“What were the causalities captain?” the short man asks the woman. “We lost two out of five ships on our way out… No survivors” she says ending with a disappointed voice. “Never mind that, we new the risks that came along with this mission” she says as she tries to push the pain away of loosing members of her team. 

“Taeil where is he? Is he here?” one of the men in the group asks the short man. “We were in a rush we didn’t check” he responds looking a bit nervous. “Are you serious?” he asks Taeil frustrated. “Doyoung im sorry we were trying to keep the ship from being shot down” he responds back annoyed. Doyoung ignores Taeil and speaks to the crowd. “Taeyeong stand up! If there is a man named Lee Taeyeong in this crowd, please stand up!” he says as he looks at all of the faces of the survivors on the floor. Taeyeong stands up and everyone looks in his direction. He feels kind of awkward having every set of eyes in this room looking at hit. 

Doyoung heads towards him and gives him a very tight hug. The sudden gesture catches Taeyeong off guard so he doesn’t know to react. He’s unaware whether to push the unknown man away or be kind and hug him back. Before he can make a decision Doyoung back away and places his hand on his forehead saying “Welcome aboard captain! Its great having you back”. 

“Excuse me? Captain?” Taeyeong asks confused. He can see that Doyoung’s happy facial expression changes to a concerned one. He looks around and sees the same emotion on Miyeon, Taeil and everyone else’s face. “You don’t know who any of us are?” Taeil asks him with a forced chuckle trying to suppress his worry. “No I’m sorry I don’t” Taeyeong responds almost feeling bad for them.

“Great… The man who is supposed to save humanity from extinction has had his brain fried. We’re all fucking screwed” some young-looking kid says as he rolls his eyes. The brief sentence sends a chilling feeling in Taeyeong’ s stomach. 

SAVE HUMANITY?


	2. Class is in session

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Taeyeong is freed from his prison he is taken to a military base in space finally being informed as the why he is vital to his rescuers plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was kind of long. I ended up chopping chunks of parts so the beginning might seem kind of rushed but this chapter is good. It's basically lots history of the invasion before getting into the nitty gritty.
> 
> Also i finished this chapter at like 3:30am and im posting it at this time so if their any grammar mistakes ill fix them at a later date.

“Doyoung shouldn’t he have his memories by now?” Taeil asks exchanging a worried look with the young kid that had spoken up earlier. “Yeah he should, I don’t understand” Doyoung responds looking at Taeyeong distraught. “I’m sorry but why should I know any of you?” Taeyeong looks around at the people staring at him. He feels like he is in some kind of trouble for not being able to recognize who they are. His attention is averted to the woman in the back as she begins to give orders to her staff members. “Let’s get all of the survivors some medical checkup and bring them up to date. Taeyeong I need you to come with me.” Miyeon stares at him and by the way things are looking right now it seems like he doesn’t really have any options. He follows the woman as Doyoung, Taeil and some other kid follow close behind. They lead him to a room a little way from where everyone else was currently being checked up on. In this room theirs a table with some type of machine that he has never seen before and he is instructed to sit in it. A young woman, maybe a few years younger than Taeyeong walks into the room and begins to press buttons on the machine starting it up. She glances over at him “Taeyeong we are going to run some tests”.

\----  
“We’ve run the scan twice now. Taeyeong is in perfect condition” the young-looking woman says annoyed. “The fact that he can’t remember anything before the abduction is extremely weird! When Miyeon, Doyoung and I escaped we regained our old memories in just under a few minutes. Why is it different for him?” Taeil asks the nurse raising his hands in frustration waiting for an answer. “Taeil… There is a specific reason why Taeyeong was found in a unique simulation with a completely new identity. Everyone in this room knows that. Whatever Taeyeong knows, Zinyak wanted to make sure he wouldn’t spread it around” she responds as she lifts Taeyeong into a sitting position after finishing the tests. “All survivors don’t recover their memories at once. Give Taeyeong some time to rest, they will come back” the young lady says as she leaves the room.

Taeyeong looks around the room and once again everyone is staring at him. “So, what happens now? Did the plan fail?” Taeil asks Doyoung.

“I think we should head down to earth and ask the president what he thinks” says the young kid reclining himself on a chair with a smug attitude. “Mark you know we can’t go back to earth! Taeyeong doesn’t remember his past so they’ll think the plan was a waste of time. We wait it out and see if the pieces come back together” Doyoung tells him ending with a disappointed sigh.

“We don’t exactly have a lot of time to be sitting around and wait. Jungwoo and the others could be in danger now” Miyeon tells Doyoung, standing in front of him glaring at him in anger. “I want to save the others as well. Don’t think that I don’t care… But we can’t just throw ourselves back out there without a plan. We go back to the drawing board and we figure it out” Doyoung tells her placing his hands on both of her shoulders trying to calm her down. Miyeon sighs and backs away from Doyoung, before exiting the room she turns around and looks at Taeyeong with a small smile on her face. “It’s great having you back. I’m happy you’re alive.”

“Can someone explain to me what’s going on? Why was I in a simulation in the first place, who’s Zinyak and why am I so important to you?” Taeyeong asks Doyoung with a plea. He feels bad for the man, realizing that you are a key part to some unknown mission and that your former world was fake must be hard for anyone to handle. “Earth was attacked by an alien race known as the Zin, their leaders name is Zinyak. They abduct the strongest and brightest and imprison them in simulations to torture them. We are soldiers working for National Intelligence Service (NIS) of Korea and the Global Alien Defense Organization (GADO). We lead the Korean team. We are on our way to base 127, we can talk more about why you are so important once we get there.”

“Okay so what am I to you guys? All of you clearly seem to know me.” Taeyeong at this point is beginning to get tired of being left out of the loop and he wants answers. “You’ve had an awfully long day; Mark will take you to your room and you can rest there… Once we get to our base, we will let you know about literally everything. In the meantime, everyone needs to rest.” Doyoung leaves the room with Taeil following behind him. The kid Mark gets up and motions for him to follow.

On his way to his room Taeyeong takes the time to observe the inside of the sip. He can tell that it’s a decent sized spaceship, enough to carry a crew of at least 40 people. Theirs little compartments where fridges and microwaves are stored. A dining area for the travelers to eat and talk, as well as a room with a pool table, a bean bag and what seems to be some video game counsels and other rooms he is unable to see.  
\---  
They finally arrive to his room and Taeyeong follows behind Mark. He shows him around his private bedroom that has a personal bathroom, a mini fridge, a closet, and a window that shows him the beautiful dark emptiness of space. Taeyeong give Mark a thank you as he leaves the room. He then immediately heads for the bathroom to shower. After stripping off his clothing he stands under the hot water pouring down on him. He thinks about his former life in the simulation and thinks that he’s probably in a bad dream right now and that it will all go back to normal eventually. The hot watering sends tingling feeling down his spine and a memory flashes.

\--*  
He’s at a big swimming pool surrounded by people. He can tell that a few of those people are Doyoung, Taeil and Miyeon but the rest are unknown to him. Theirs a group of people swimming while others are cooking burgers on a grill. It looks like it might be summer based on how shiny the sun is and the obvious fact the everyone is in swimming attire. He sees Miyeon and Doyoung not too far away sitting at a table staring deeply into each other’s eyes. They seem happy to him as he notices Miyeon looking at Doyoung like stars shine over him. Doyoung lifts a spoon full of ice cream and directs it towards Miyeons mouth. She gladly accepts it and they laugh at each other. It seems like these two are madly in love, they seem happy. 

Taeyeong’s attention is pulled away from the love birds as two men pick up the seat he is in, while he’s still on, and begin to direct him towards the water. “Jaehyun no! I said I would get in later” he says as he laughs towards the man on his right. On his left there is another guy, much taller than Jaehyun and with longer hair. They succeed on throwing him into the pull including the chair and Taeyeong resurfaces laughing. “This was Johnny’s idea sorry” Jaehyun says laughing along with Johnny.  
\--*  
As Taeyeong’s flashback comes to an end, when he thinks about these two men in his memory a strong sad feeling pierces his heart. For some unknown reason, the thought of these two bring nothing but sadness to him. He decides to let it go for now and question Doyoung about who they were to them later. He steps out of the shower, dries himself off and puts on the set of clothing that was laid down on his bed for him. He lays in bed throwing the covers over himself and as he rests his head on his pillow, he secretly wishes that when he wakes up all of this was a nightmare. Deep down he knows nothing so far is fake and this is his new reality. 

\---*  
It’s the middle of the night and Taeyeong gets up from his bed as a loud noise wakes him up. He’s unaware of what time it is but knows that by the extreme darkness still lingering outside of his window it’s a clear indication that its late. He sits on his bed with a stuffed animal in his hands alone in the darkness. He hears the loud noise again outside of his house and dashes out of bed towards his parents’ room. As he runs across the hallway, he sees his parents’ room door is already opened. He slowly creeps in to search for them but realizes that they are not in bed. He directs his attention towards the stairs leading to the first floor as a flash of a red light lights up the darkened house. He hears his mother cry out NO in the distance and heads towards her. As he reaches the bottom steps he frantically runs around in the kitchen, the living room and the dining room searching for her but can’t find her. A sudden bang calls his attention and he notice’s the front door is opened and the wind in making it bang against the wall. Outside he can see his mother standing still, silent, looking up at the sky. He heads towards the front door and slowly steps on the porch holding on tight to the stuffed animal. 

Taeyeong silently calls out to his mother “Mom what’s going on? Where is dad?” as he slowly heads towards her. His voice manages to shake his mother out of whatever trance she was in and she looks at him. From the distance Taeyeong can tell she has tears in her eyes. As Taeyeong reaches the final step of the small staircase his mother shouts at him to STAY BACK as she runs towards him but never manages to reach him. A red beam comes shining down around his mother, crashing into the ground with enough force to send a wave of air that pushes young Taeyeong off his feet. He wipes the dust off his face, grabs the stuffed animal he had dropped and looks towards him mother. The beam surrounding her lifts her up into the sky at a quick movement speed as she screams in terror. Taeyeong’s frightened by the events unfolding before his eyes but decides to be brave and dashes towards his mother to try and save her but evidently fails. As he reaches to where the beam was lighting just a few moments ago, it shuts off. He looks up into the sky and is shocked by what he sees. A dozen or maybe even more of weird shaped silhouettes with red lights attached to them are spread all over the sky. Some are shining down similar read beams down into the city and he can see several other humans being taken away into the sky. 

Suddenly the red beam shines over him as well and he looks up into the sky and is blinded but the brightness of the light. He lifts one hand and places it over his eyes to try and catch a glimpse of what’s shining it above him. And then just like that it disappears, and the weird silhouette above starts to drift away from him and heads towards the city shining its scary light above others.  
\---*

Taeyeong is woken up from his slumber as he feels something pushing at his sides. As he opens his eyes, he sees Mark is in his bedroom. “Hey, sorry for waking you up like this. We’ve been paging you for a couple of minutes now.” Mark backs away from the bed suddenly embarrassed by having to wake him up. Taeyeong wipes is eyes with his hands still feeling a big groggy and apologizes for not waking up earlier. “Oh, don’t sweat it. We just wanted you to come and have breakfast with us. We are almost at base 127 and once we get there you’ll need to be freshened up with all the information we are going to throw at you” Mark says suddenly feeling dumb for probably worrying Taeyeong about the meeting they’re going to have later. “I’m sorry I probably shouldn’t be bothering you as soon as you wake up… Freshen up I’ll wait for you outside and take you to the cafeteria” he says as he walks out of the bedroom. Taeyeong gets up from his bed and heads towards the shower to start off his day.

As he leaves his room he meets up with a smiling Mark and silently follows him standing side by side. As they reach the cafeteria, he sees a lot more people than he saw yesterday. Men and woman all looking young conversating with one another, some laughing, others eating silently while others stare at Taeyeong. In the distance someone raises their hand calling for his attention and sees that its Doyoung sitting with Miyeon and Taeil. After he and Mark grab their food they head over and sit alongside them. “So how did you sleep?” asks Taeil as he munches down on his breakfast. “Great but I… I think I regained some memories last night.” Taeyeong responds.

“What memories exactly?” Miyeon asks him curious. “Well the first one was when I was showering. I was at some pool- well we were, as well as some other people I didn’t recognize. Everyone seemed to be having fun and stuff… I remember someone named Jaehyun and Johnny” he says looking around at the members at the table as they listen to him. He notices everyone excepts for Marks facial expression change into a sad one as he mentions those names. “If it’s a memory about a pool and all of us were there we know which one. We didn’t exactly have lots of vacations… That was a good day” Taeil says staring off into his plate as he reminisces about that day. “Who were Jaehyun and Johnny?” Taeyeong asks. “They were part of the elite team” Doyoung says but quickly notices Taeyeong’s confused expression and decides to elaborate. “The elite team was the name of our team. It was composed of some the strongest and brightest soldiers Korea had to offer. Which was led by you” he tells him with a smile on his face.

Shocked by the sudden revelation he silently laughs and asks, “I led a team of the strongest soldiers of Korea?”. Miyeon laughs to herself saying “Yes you were, and you were a pain in the ass. Always so strict! Everything had to be perfect ALWAYS!” she says as everyone around the table laughs. “But you were also a very good friend, very nice, very caring. You were always so much more than just a captain to us, and we were more than just some regular team of soldiers. We were family” she adds on dropping her smile as she thinks about her past. “Jaehyun was your second in command, if anything ever happened to you, he was tasked with taking your place. As for Johnny, he was the muscle of our team... The day Korea was attacked for the second time and the second wave of abductions occurred Johnny gave his life saving yours and Jaehyuns before-“ she says but is cut off by Doyoung nudging her shoulder with his elbow. “…they were great human beings that deserved so much more than what was given to them” she says as she continues to eat her food.

“So, what was your second memory?” Doyoung asks him trying to change the sad mood. “Well I’m not sure if it was a memory or a bad dream but... It was mom, she was being abducted. It was the middle of the night and… I don’t know…” Taeyeong responds suddenly saddened by the memory. “It most likely was a memory. That was a defining moment for you. The abduction of your mom is what made you the soldier you are now” Doyoung tells him as he starts to pick up the table as everyone had finished their food. Taeyeong gets a little irritated at his response “You said you would give me information today, when can I start asking more questions?” he asks a little annoyed.

“Excuse me captain but we are a couple minutes from base” a young-looking girl with long brown hair says as she approaches the table. “Thank you for the heads up Yeji. Make sure you run inventory on the armory and have the diagnostics on the ship ready upon arrival. I want to make sure no heavy damages were done to the ship while escaping” Doyoung responds. “Of course, captain” Yeji says as she heads off to do her work.

“I told you when we get to base… I hope you’re ready because there’s lots to unpack.” Doyoung leaves the table with Miyeon helping him pick everyone’s dishes. Taeyeong feels a small tap on his shoulder, its Mark “The base looks beautiful as you’re pulling up come on” he says as he grabs his arm pulling him. Mark leads him to a window that showcases a gigantic base in the middle of space. Mark didn’t lie when he said it looked beautiful as you approach it. The sheer size of the base made Taeyeong feel a weird feeling inside as well as goosebumps. An odd and almost familiar feeling of happiness and joy lurks underneath the surface of his body and makes Taeyeong’s heart skip a beat.

The spaceship had arrived at one of the landing docks of the base and the passengers were exiting the ship. Upon arriving the survivors are being directed by a group of soldiers to another location. In the distance a woman with short black hair in an expensive futuristic looking suit walks up to them. “Glad to see the mission was a partial success. Doyoung has me up to date” she says looking at the members with a sense of pride in her voice. She redirects her eyesight to Taeyeong and takes her hand out for Taeyeong to shake it, hesitantly he shakes it with a firm grip. “You may not understand why right now but the human race is glad the team managed to pull you out safely. My name is Jo Haseul, I am the captain of base 127 of Korea… Until you take my place that is, but only when your memories are back.”

Taeyeong soaks in the information and sits on it for a few seconds and looks towards his new friends. They seem proud of him, it’s a pity he can’t remember things right now. But underneath the worry and fear he is experiencing theirs hope that those lost memories will return and that he is able to step up to the plate and live up to the expectations they have of him. “Head over to room U, he needs to know everything.” Doyoung, Miyeon, Taeil and Mark bow to the woman before she walks away the way she came in. The team leads Taeyeong through the base towards room U. As he looks around, he can oddly compare the base to a mall. Instead of having hundreds of people buying clothes and jewelry from stores or sitting down and eating chatting over the latest movie or fashion trend. There are hundreds of people working out, loading, and unloading weaponry into other ships and boxes. He can see some type of robotic machines big enough for a human to fit in as well as other unfamiliar gadgets throughout the room.  
\---  
As he arrives to their destination he’s met with several other young men and woman sitting down in chairs looking towards a man writing down on a board with a black marker. Everyone looks at him as they all walk by to sit down near the front. He notices that one of the people sitting down is the kid that made the comment about his brain being fried. He also sees Yeji, heading towards Doyoung with something similar looking to an iPad. This device however had no back, its words seemed like they were being projected by a hologram within the device. This most likely had the inventory data and diagnostic report Doyoung had requested before.

The man that was standing in front of the room walks over to them “Well hello there! its good to see you guys back all in one piece” he says as he smiles. “Names Nakamoto Yuta. Good to see you again Taeyeong. I hope you are ready ‘cause class is in session.” 

Taeyeong greets him back, unable to say he’s glad to see him too as he doesn’t remember but makes quick note about what he just said. “Nakamoto Yuta you said? As in you are Japanese?” he says as he glances towards his team “I thought this was Korea’s base”. Mark quickly responds before anyone else can, clearly excited at being able to reveal the information. “Yuta isn’t technically really welcomed in Japan or on their base up in space… He’s not really welcomed on many places on earth either.” 

Doyoung gets up from his seat and goes to stand next to Yuta placing a hand around his shoulder. “You see Yuta here. Is not welcomed in Japan or in many places on earth because they don’t trust him. But some places do trust him, that includes Korea and China.” Taeyeong confused asks “Okay but why is that? Being banned from many places on earth in pretty alarming don’t you think?”. “You see Yuta here was once the leader of the Alien Defense Organization alpha team of Japan. The day Korea was attacked a meeting was going to occur that required the attendance of the presidents of all the countries in Asia. Many special agents were taken that day, including Yuta.”

“Okay so if he was a prisoner just like us why is he exiled from so many places?” Taeyeong asks even more confused. “I was in my own simulation once, but I managed to escape. You see the aliens are incredibly intelligent but not perfect. The simulations are not flawless, and in some cases a glitch within their system occurs. My simulation had a number of major glitches. This allowed me to regain my memories while being in my prison, so I used that to my advantage to escape.”

“So, you escaped the simulation but how did you even manage to get off the ship and back to earth?” Mark asks Yuta, pretending to not know the missing parts of his story. Yuta continues “At first I used one of the glitches to escape my simulation, but only my mind was able to leave. I lingered and traveled between several of the simulations of hundreds of humans all over the ship, but this brought serious consequences. Since my mind wasn’t present in my own simulation and they couldn’t register any brain activity the Zin thought that I had died so they disposed of my body and unknowingly left my mind trapped within their system. After several years I was able to infiltrate a small part of their system and download my memories and personality into a murderbot.” Taeyeong once again, wears confused facial expression and Yuta proceeds. “A murderbot is an exoskeleton equipped with heavy automatic weapons and grenades, similar to those terminator robots. I managed to steal a ship and fly back to earth, but no one really wanted to trust some robot that came from space. The exoskeleton left me exposed, I wore no skin, my voice was robotic, I wasn’t technically the friendliest looking machine either.”

Taeyeong suddenly feels bad for Yuta. It must have been a lot to lose your original physical form and have your home country treat you like a threat. Yuta softly smiles at him before continuing his story. “I was able to not get dismantled and destroyed for a couple of years. I survived by gaining the trust of some humans and somehow, I made my way to Korea and they trusted me. I want through hundreds of tests and gave them information, which allowed them to build their own spaceships as well as this beautiful base we have up here… I begged them to give me a mission to show my loyalty and that I was still human on the inside despite not looking like it on the outside. With the help of soldiers like Mark, Yeji, Chan, Jaemin and many others I was able to not only bring back several prisoners, but I managed to help Doyoung, Taeil and Miyeon escape.”

Taeyeong looks over to the mentions members and notice how fondly they look at Yuta. “So how do you manage to look so human now?” he asks. “While helping the others escape, I managed to download some more information from their system. We figured out to way to make me look like my previous human state before the abduction. Skin is purely synthetic and underneath I’m all metal but I’m still me… And even bigger” Yuta says the last part sending a wink towards Taeyeong making everyone in the room laugh. 

“But wait a minute I’m still confused about something…. You said you were stuck in their system for years and then remained hidden for several years while on earth… how long have we been abducted?” Taeyeong asks Yuta. As he looks around the room, he sees a worried expression on his teams faces. “When the first attack happened the majority of us were nine to thirteen years old. We were in our twenties when we became soldiers and you guys formed the elite team and when we were abducted. I spent around thirty years stuck within their system and another fifteen years hiding on earth and then a couple more years trying to gain Koreas trust.” Taeyeong gasps at the sudden information thrown at him. “Guys… How long have we been up there?” he asks a bit frustrated at not receiving a direct answer. After a long pause Doyoung decides to answer.

“There’s a ten-month gap between our escape and yours but… We were up there for seventy-seven years.”

The room stays silent for a moment as Taeyeong runs his fingers through his hair as his heart suddenly start to pound heavier. Taeil breaks the silence “We had the same reaction… It’s a lot to take in we know.” Taeyeong gets up from his seat and paces a little back and forth before finally speaking up. “So, what I- the world I knew before is just gone? Nothing from my simulation was real and currently exists?”. Yuta sits on an empty chair and motions for Taeyeong to sit down. “So far you are the only human who was given a new identity your simulation. Everyone who I had visited while I was trapped within the system was being tortured by their worst nightmare, but you were put into a paradise. Zinyak had given you everything you wanted in your simulation but erased any trace of who you were before.”

“How could I be given everything I wanted when everything was taken away from me?”  
Taeyeong asks confused. “According to Zinyak you are one of earths greatest soldiers and one of his favorite specimens. He gave you peace and the thing that you desired the most. He gave you your family and a normal life. Free from the alien invasion” says Miyeon. Doyoung chimes in and adds “The probability of anyone that we had met seventy-seven years ago still existing is very low. We have been at war for over one hundred years. Our old lives are gone...” Taeyeong releases a heavy sigh but fights through his emotions to fill the gaps of missing information. “Okay so… We were soldiers who were abducted… Why am I so special? What sets me apart from all of you?”.

“The day we were all abducted you, Jaehyun and Johnny were close to killing Zinyak. No human had ever gotten close enough to the alien the way the three of you did. Throughout this battle the three of you found out what his weak spot was, that almost allowed you guys to kill him. But-“ Doyoung pauses, looking at Taeyeong unsure of revealing the next bits of information but evidently decides to continue. “…all three of you were killed during this battle but he decided to revive you and Jaehyun and store you in simulations.” Taeyeong’s heart begins to pound heavily again and tears begin to accumulate in his eyes. “I died?” he asks with a shaky voice. “So, if he killed me why bring me back? If I died and Zinyak got away how does anyone know we discovered its weakness?”. This time marks answers the question. “While all of you were kept in captivity Thailand started learning how to read and understand their language. An agent, code name Ten, had managed to fully understand it and decided to share that information with the world. He had come to Korea to inform Yuta on how to comprehend the language so the information could never be lost as Yuta’s brain works differently. After doing so Yuta went through the stolen data he had in his system and found a file on you. You were close to killing him and that’s why he decided to revive you and store you in a peaceful simulation. That’s what makes you so special because you know something no one else in the universe knows.”

Taeyeong sits back and does his best to soak up the information being revealed to him. Yuta pulls him out of his thoughts by speaking up. “It is very important for us to help you regain your memories we need for you to remember what happened that day. You are the key to saving everyone and everything on our planet before he decides to obliterate us from existence.” After a long pause Taeyeong asks “But I don’t have my memories… So what happens now?”. After a short pause Doyoung speaks “Well… We really don’t know. We didn’t think we would get this far. A lot of people thought going to retrieve you was going to be our last mission.”

The room once again falls silent, no one speaking letting Taeyeong ease into his new reality. An idea pops into Taeyeongs head that has several people in the room confused. 

“Send me back into the simulation.”


End file.
